G&B: 2014: Arrival in Budapest

Geoff Brock & Bruce Gamble

Arrival in Budapest

Hello, my name is William Bear. I was sitting quietly at home when I overheard my Wicked Stepmother and my Daddy talking about my Uncles Geoff and Bruce forthcoming holiday. “Well, I would not want to go on a river cruise!” said WSM. “But they will visit Salzburg and see all the Sound of Music sites. And there is a free bar”, said my Daddy. My ears pricked up. Free bar??!! Sound of Music??!! Why don’t my two do this sort of thing? I shall report them to the RSPCB! I learned that G&B were off the next day. Yay for Thameslink and a direct connection. I waited outside their door and when they were taking their cases to the taxi, I managed to slip into their hand luggage. The flight to Budapest was not comfortable. Stuffed in a bag in an overhead locker. But needs must. But three hours later, I found myself in a cabin on the ship. I explored. All the essentials were there – a mini-bar, a bathroom, a mini-bar, a comfy spot for me to sleep and a mini-bar. The restaurant and bar was a short walk away. I hopped onto a bar stool. “What would you like?” asked the barman. “A large brandy”, I replied. I thought G&B would be pleased to treat me. “No charge” said the barman. “Let me know if you want another.” My word, this is my sort of holiday! I must try to get WSM to do this in future.


	Monday 21st April 2014

We arrived at Budapest's airport, which is about 15 miles southeast of the city centre, at around lunch time. There was only one carousel working in the baggage collection area, so although we got through immigration very quickly, our flight had arrived after a flight from Russia and its baggage was coming through before ours. Unfortunately, the Russian travellers aboard the flight were stuck for ages in the immigration queue and couldn't collect their baggage. This meant that the single (fully automated) baggage carousel became bogged down with uncollected baggage and couldn't process our baggage. It was quite a comedic scene, with passengers from our flight all trying to move and rearrange the Russian flight's baggage to allow sufficiently wide gaps to allow the automated carousel to let our bags through. There was no sign of any airport staff in all of this and it did make us think for a moment that perhaps Hungary hadn't quite come as far as it might have in the past twenty years or so since the fall of communism! After the backlog had been finally cleared and we found the exit, a Scenic representative was there to meet us. We were soon on our way to the Scenic Diamond, which was docked on the western bank of the Danube in Buda, directly across the river from the striking parliament building.

We were checked in quickly whilst we enjoyed a late light lunch in the cafe and found that our bags were already in our cabin after that.

As we unpacked, we were very surprised to find a stowaway; yes, it was William Bear! He had escaped from his wicked step-mother and joined us for the cruise. He promised to do his own thing and not get in our way. He also said that he would give us a daily update of his activities!